The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-194315 filed on Jun. 28, 2000 and No. 2001-178029 filed on Jun. 13, 2001 including specification, claims, drawings and summary is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention is related to a potty to be used for such pet animals as a domestic cat.
In recent time, the number of population who are rearing a pet animal, such as domestic cat, in a house has been increased.
However, a pet animal cannot use a lavatory by itself, and therefore, a human has to interveniently take care of cleaning the excretion of a pet animal, for which substantial time and labor had to be required.
Namely, a cat requires sand when it excretes based on the instinctive behavior thereof, it is thus required to bring a potty with sand into a house, which causes introduction of some conditions similar to the outdoor into a room.
FIG. 14 is an example for the conventional potty for cat use, wherein sand 02 is put in a sand tray 01.
For using such conventional potty indoors, various proposals for improvement in the use have been made in view of resolving smell and sanitary problems. However, there are yet problems as described below for such conventional potties in terms of cleaning excretion and the constitutional structure.
(1) Since substantial space is required to place the potty, it is problematic when placing it in a small house.
(2) The amount of the dairy excretion is rather big in quantity, which gives difficulty in bringing it for trash. For example, when water-absorbing sand is used for collecting urines, said sand tends to be solid after absorbing urines to make greater solid lump, causing problem of increasing trash in quantity.
(3) In particular, a cat need sand when it excretes, the consumption of sand by a cat becomes great, and the amount of sand to be brought into a house is enormous, which additionally causing difficulty in storing sand.
(4) Further, when using the sand tray 01 whereto sand 02 is placed as a potty, a cat tends to spoil rooms with the legs being fouled with his excretion since a cat directly contacts to the sand 02 in the tray 01. In particular, such spoiling of rooms is more serious when a cat is sick in diarrhea.
(5) Further, during the excretion, the sand 02 is scattering around the tray 01, thereby causing a need for cleaning.
(6) In addition, from a viewpoint of interior decoration, placing the tray 01 containing the sand 02 as it is disfigures the atmosphere.
The present invention is directed to solve such problems recited above and to provide a potty for a pet animal, which may reduce the amount of the sand that spoils the indoor and is scattered by such pet animal as a cat to the minimum and is constituted in a compact shape requiring less space for the placing.
The potty for a pet animal according to the present invention overcomes the problems as described above and is characterized in that the potty for a pet animal is constituted by an outer case of which upper part being opened, an internal case to be contained in the outer case and is constituted by forming a reticular member at the central part of the bottom, and a cover to be internally fitted to the upper peripheral part of the opening of the internal case and having a hole at the central part for excretion purpose.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, an amount of sand may be provided onto the reticular member formed in the internal case.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the reticular member formed in the internal case may be either a reticular member or a latticed member which covers the hole formed in the bottom central part of the internal case.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the reticular member formed in the internal case may be either a reticular member or a latticed member being formed in accreted state to the internal case.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the outer case and the internal case may be united in watertight state at each flange parts of the both cases and are detachably constituted.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, a guard member for covering the peripheral margin of the cover and having an opening for using as an access for a pet animal at the front and the rear sides of the case in the longitudinal direction may be provided.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the outer case and the internal case may be united in watertight state at each flange parts of the both cases and may be detachably constituted, and the internal case, the cover and the guard member may be detachably fitted with each other at the peripheral margin of the potty.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the cover and the guard member may be constituted in accreted state by means of molding.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, a hole for excretion may be formed at the central part of the cover and a mat containing fine pores for excluding the sand may be set on the upper part of the cover.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, a plurality of fine pores for excluding the sand downward may be formed in the cover.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, a water-absorbing means may be provided onto the bottom of the outer case.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the bottom part of the cover may be formed so as to gradually incline downward in a direction to the central opening part of the case.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, a drawer member may be provided in containable manner onto the bottom of the outer case and a water-absorbing means may be provided in the drawer member.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the pet animal to use the potty may be a cat.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the potty may be installed into a cage for a pet animal.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the potty may be installed into a piece of furniture for a pet animal.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the potty may be installed into an athletic house for a pet animal.
In the potty for a pet animal according to the invention specified above, the potty for a pet animal may be installed into an athletic house for a pet animal, wherein a mean for rubbing nails is provided on the roof of the athletic house.